410 On Phyfiogmmy. 



literary obfervations refpefting the progrefs of 

 phyfiognomy as my reading has fuggefted. 



There has been fome difpute* refpefting the 

 etymology of the term ; fome deriving it from 

 ^u<ri<T nature and yiyvioaxu to know ; others from 

 ^wio- and 7VWUWV an index j others from <pu^io- and 

 yvoiiti a mark J according to thefe laft derivations, 

 phyfiognomy, will be, a knowledge of nature 

 from the indices or marks of it. This extended 

 fignification to which the etymology of the word 

 leads, I have noticed, becaufe I think it is re- 

 motely connefted with the doftrine oi fignatures. 



For the fame reafon it may be worth while 

 to mention the controverfies refpecling the 

 definition of phyfiognomy. The ancients feem 

 to have confined phyfiognomy to man, or at 

 leaft to animated nature. Thus Ariftotle, f 

 nunc autem dicam ex qiiibus generibus figna accipian- 

 tur : etfint omnia-, ex motibus enim phyfiognomizant 

 et exfiguris et coloribus, et ex moribus apparentibus 

 in facie, et ex levitate, et ex Voce, et ex Carne, et 

 ex partibus et ex figura totius corporis. So Cicero, J 

 hominum mores naturafque, ex corpore oculis 



• Voffius Etymolog. & Martini Lexicon fub voce. 



f Phyfiognomic. cap. II. oXA wv 3f yev«i» ra o'»jitEia, &c. 

 To fave the room that the originals and tranflations of 

 all the paflages quoted, would occupy; I have given the 

 Latin verfions only of the Greek quotations. 

 \ De fato. V. 



vultu^ 



